Clarence Brown

Clarence Leon Brown (May 10, 1890 – August 17, 1987) was an American film director.

Early life

Born in Clinton, Massachusetts, to Larkin Harry Brown, a cotton manufacturer, and Katherine Ann Brown (née Gaw), Brown moved to Tennessee when he was 11 years old. He attended Knoxville High School and the University of Tennessee, both in Knoxville, Tennessee, graduating from the university at the age of 19 with two degrees in engineering. An early fascination in automobiles led Brown to a job with the Stevens-Duryea Company, then to his own Brown Motor Car Company in Alabama. He later abandoned the car dealership after developing an interest in motion pictures around 1913. He was hired by the Peerless Studio at Fort Lee, New Jersey, and became an assistant to the French-born director Maurice Tourneur.

Career

After serving as a fighter pilot and flight instructor in the United States Army Air Service during World War I,Hollywood's Forgotten Master Gets His Due
Directors Guild of America. Retrieved December 1, 2021.Clarence Brown, Director of Garbo, Gable, Dies at 97
''Los Angeles Times'' via Internet Archive. Retrieved December 1, 2021.Clarence Brown, FILMMAKER; UT Knoxville, 1910
University of Tennessee. Retrieved December 1, 2021.Clarence Brown; American filmmaker
Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved December 1, 2021.Classic Director Spotlight -Clarence Brown
www.storyenthusiast.com. Retrieved December 1, 2021. Brown was given his first co-directing credit (with Tourneur) for '' The Great Redeemer'' (1920). Later that year, he directed a major portion of ''The Last of the Mohicans'' after Tourneur was injured in a fall.

Brown moved to Universal in 1924, and then to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where he remained until the mid-1950s. At MGM he was one of the main directors of their major female stars; he directed Joan Crawford six times and Greta Garbo seven.

Brown was nominated six times (see below) for an Academy Award as a director, but he never received an Oscar. However, he won Best Foreign Film for ''Anna Karenina'', starring Garbo at the 1935 Venice International Film Festival.

Brown's films gained a total of 38 Academy Award nominations and earned nine Oscars. Brown himself received six Academy Award nominations and in 1949, he won the British Academy Award for the film version of William Faulkner's ''Intruder in the Dust''.

In 1957, Brown was awarded The George Eastman Award, given by George Eastman House for distinguished contribution to the art of film. Brown retired a wealthy man due to his real estate investments, but refused to watch new movies, as he feared they might cause him to restart his career.

The Clarence Brown Theater, on the campus of the University of Tennessee, is named in his honor. He holds the record for most nominations for the Academy Award for Best Director without a win, with six.

Personal life

Clarence Brown was married four times. His first marriage was to Paula Herndon Pratt in 1913, which lasted until their divorce in 1920. The couple produced a daughter, Adrienne Brown.

His second marriage was to Ona Wilson, which lasted from 1922 until their divorce in 1927.

He was engaged to Dorothy Sebastian and Mona Maris, although he did not marry either of them, with Maris later saying she ended their relationship because she had her "own ideas of marriage then."

He married his third wife, Alice Joyce, in 1933 and they divorced in 1945.

His last marriage was to Marian Spies in 1946, which lasted until his death in 1987.

Death

Brown died at the Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California from kidney failure on August 17, 1987, at the age of 97. He is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.Wilson, Scott. ''Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons'', 3d ed.: 2. McFarland & Company (2016)

On February 8, 1960, Brown received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1752 Vine Street, for his contributions to the motion pictures industry.

Selected filmography

Director

*'' Trilby'' (1915)
*'' The Law of the Land'' (1917)
*'' The Blue Bird'' (1918)
*'' The Great Redeemer'' (1920)
*''The Last of the Mohicans'' (1920)
*''The Foolish Matrons'' (1921)
*''The Light in the Dark'' (1922)
*''Don't Marry for Money'' (1923)
*''The Acquittal'' (1923)

*'' The Signal Tower'' (1924)
*''Butterfly'' (1924)
*'' The Eagle'' (1925)
*''The Goose Woman'' (1925)
*'' Smouldering Fires'' (1925)
*'' Flesh and the Devil'' (1926)
*'' Kiki'' (1926)
*''A Woman of Affairs'' (1928)
*'' The Trail of '98'' (1929)
*'' Navy Blues'' (1929)
*''Wonder of Women'' (1929)
*''Anna Christie'' (1930) – Academy Award nomination for Best Director
*'' Romance'' (1930) – Academy Award nomination for Best Director
*''Inspiration'' (1931)
*'' Possessed'' (1931)
*''A Free Soul'' (1931) – Academy Award nomination for Best Director
*'' Emma'' (1932)
*'' Letty Lynton'' (1932)
*'' The Son-Daughter'' (1932)
*''Looking forward'' (1933)
*'' Night Flight'' (1933)
*''Sadie McKee'' (1934)
*'' Chained'' (1934)
*'' Ah, Wilderness!'' (1935)
*''Anna Karenina'' (1935)
*''Wife vs. Secretary'' (1936)
*''The Gorgeous Hussy'' (1936)
*''Conquest'' (1937)
*''Of Human Hearts'' (1938)
*'' Idiot's Delight'' (1939)
*'' The Rains Came'' (1939)
*'' Edison, the Man'' (1940)
*'' Come Live with Me'' (1941)
*'' They Met in Bombay'' (1941)
*'' The Human Comedy'' (1943) – Academy Award nominations for Best Director and for Best Picture
*''The White Cliffs of Dover'' (1944)
*'' National Velvet'' (1944) – Academy Award nomination for Best Director
*'' The Yearling'' (1946) – Academy Award nomination for Best Director
*'' Song of Love'' (1947)
*''Intruder in the Dust'' (1949)
*'' To Please a Lady'' (1950)
*'' Angels in the Outfield'' (1951)
*'' When in Rome'' (1952)
*''Plymouth Adventure'' (1952)

Actor

*'' The Signal Tower'' (1924) – Switch Man
*'' Ben-Hur'' (1925) – Chariot Race Spectator (uncredited)
*'' Navy Blues'' (1929) – Roller Coaster Rider (uncredited)
*'' Possessed'' (1931) – Man on Merry-Go-Round (uncredited) (final film role)

Notes

References

Sources

* Brownlow, Kevin. "Clarence Brown" in ''The Parade's Gone By'' New York: Knopf (1968)
* Estrin, Allen. "The Hollywood Professionals, Vol. 6: Frank Capra, George Cukor, Clarence Brown", AS Barnes (1980)
* Bastarache, A.J. ''An Extraordinary Town, How one of America's smallest towns shaped the world – A Historical Marketing Book'' by A. J. Bastarache.
* Young, Gwenda. 'Clarence Brown: From Knoxville to Hollywood and Back'. ''Journal of East Tennessee History, pp. 53–73 (2002)
*
* Young, Gwenda. Clarence Brown: Hollywood's Forgotten Master. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2018
* Neely, Jack
"Clarence Brown: The Forgotten Director"
'' Metro Pulse'' (March 2008)

External links

*

"An Extraordinary Town – Clinton, Massachusetts" (a book on Brown's birthplace, with an extensive section on Brown)
extraordinarytown.com

Information available on the actual dates and nominations, plus commentary on the nominations for multiple roles/films in 1929/1930
, oscars.org

Clarence Brown profile
virtual-history.com

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Clarence
1890 births
1987 deaths
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American screenwriters
American film editors
American male screenwriters
Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)
Deaths from kidney failure
Film directors from Massachusetts
Film directors from Tennessee
Film producers from Massachusetts
Film producers from Tennessee
People from Clinton, Massachusetts
People from Knoxville, Tennessee
Screenwriters from Massachusetts
Screenwriters from Tennessee
United States Army Air Service pilots of World War I
Military personnel from Massachusetts